Shotgun man, take me by the hand, lead me to the land that you understand Shotgun man, the voyage to the corner of the globe is a real trip Shotgun man, the crust of a tan man imbibed by the sand Soaking up the thirst of the landShotgun man, can you see through the wonder of amazement at the oberman Shotgun man, the crust is elusive when it casts forth to the childlike man Shotgun man, the sequence of a life form braised in the sand, Soaking up the thirst of the landShotgun man, ocean man Shotgun manShotgun man, take me by the hand, lead me to the land that you understand Shotgun man, the voyage to the corner of the globe is a real trip Shotgun man, the crust of a tan man imbibed by the sand Soaking up the thirst of the landShotgun man, can you see through the wonder of amazement at the oberman Shotgun man, the crust is elusive when it casts forth to the childlike man Shotgun man, the sequence of a life form braised in the sand, Soaking up the thirst of the landShotgun man

This is still one of the best first person shooters available. Almost a decade after it's release you will still be able to join multi-player games. Graphically, it is starting to show it's age, true, but it isn't any worse than say, Skyrim which used the exact same textures as Fallout New Vegas. The terrorist AI is adequate during the campaign. The controls are really easy to use. There is an excellent weapon selection, and plenty of maps in multi-player to use them all on.

Where the game is lacking is in small areas.

First, in the campaign your AI squadmates tend to get in the way. Since this is very much a 1-shot and you die kind of game, you do not want to get stuck between them in a firefight. Second. The stats on the weapons are off. By a lot. Not to the point that selecting some of the "bad" weapons are unplayable, but it is noticeable. Since real life weapons and gear are used, the game tries to make them as close to the real life variants as possible. However, when you take the Commando 552 (what the game calls the M4) and compare it to the AK-47, it blows the AK-47 out of the water in every category. This however, is not true to life, as any and every person who has shot them both will say they are very similar. Most will have their preference.

Now, another thing to point out about the weapons is that you only get 1 attachment for each weapon. HOWEVER, be careful with this, as some of the weapons make up for lackluster statistics by coming with attachments or modifications on them already! The Tar-21 is a prime example of this as it comes with a reflex scope on it right out of the box. Generally speaking, with the exception of pistols and sub guns, the first weapons you get in each category are the best. The Commando 552 is the best Assault Rifle. The 21E is the best Machine Gun. The Spas-12 is the best shotgun. This kind of annoys me, because I swear I've been sniped by more SPAS-12s than any other weapon in the game. You don't snipe with a shotgun. Shotguns in general, have this weird ability to hit targets at really long ranges even though they're full of buckshot and not slugs. I digress. The best sub gun is debatable, but I tend to stick with the Mac-11 since I use it as a joke, or when I get caught by 4 terrorists rushing me and I need a really fast way to dump a whole bunch of bullets at close range targets in a matter of less than 2 seconds.

The point with the weapons, if you're reading between the lines, is that they aren't flawed in a way that would annoy the casual (or even serious) gamer. They simply annoy me as a matter of personal preference because I am a firearms enthusiast who knows things about them in real life.

Moving along.

The game has a pretty large cluster of multi-player maps. Granted, the game is 10 years old, so for someone like me who has already played through everything there is to play, I just want more. While I would like to have seen another map pack with about 4 or 5 more, or at least the ability to generate my own, it isn't at all necessary. In fact, there is an official map pack that adds 3 more multi-player maps and some early bug fixes with sound. So if this is your first play-thru, or if you have played before and simply not played the game in years, you'll be just fine.

The only REAL flaws this game has are...

-No modding support. At least not to speak of. It isn't like the old games where you can find and download a NATO mod to give yourself access to 65 more weapons.-Some aspects of cover and concealment have a tricky learning curve because a lot of "cover" is actually concealment that can be shot through. I routinely get kills in both multi-player and campaign modes by shooting through whatever another player (or terrorist) is hiding behind.-There is one bug that was simply never fixed. Over on my end, we call it "Machine Gun City" and it's an aspect with sound where if you get killed while firing your machine gun by a terrorist with a machine gun while somebody else is also firing a machine gun, you will get stuck with a constant machine gun echo going off through your speakers/headset. This is rather annoying as it tends to drown out every other sound in the game. Thankfully this ends as soon as the match is over.

Overall, I give this game a perfect 10 out of 10. It is, by far, beyond the shadow of any doubt, better than anything Halo has made. It's better than anything and everything Call of Duty past the first one. It's better than Battlefield too. It's better than those games even now, 10 years past it's debut. Why? Because as a shooter it still holds up graphically. For replay value? It's all there. For the need to use tactics and strategy? Yes. Rainbow Six is the series that made FPS games. It's the series that put tactics and strategy on the map. And perhaps most importantly? If you're like me and don't want to play a multi-player game with a bunch of impatient people or kids running around trying to give everyone a "teabag" or getting hit with a tomahawk in the ankle from halfway across the map, than this game is DEFINITELY worth few bucks and installation time.